Gentle Treant

Unevolved

Neither plant nor animal, a lonely treant waits for his only visitor, a strange bird with opaline feathers whose colors play in the light. His leafy crown perks up as he hears a sound—not the soft flap of wings, but the crunch of a poacher's boot.

Evolved

The poacher has come for the bird, its iridescent feathers. Cracking his not-branches and not-roots, the treant defends his only friend, realizing at last what he is. Not a plant or animal, but a home. And from then on, the lonely treant is lonely no more.